Beatpath: NFL Week 8 Games

The schedule shows a couple of games that could have an obvious huge effect. First is Jacksonville at St. Louis. I wouldn’t put it past St. Louis to win this game. Another is Washington at the Giants, and I really wouldn’t be surprised if the Giants win. If both those happen, two of Denver’s long beatpaths would be obliterated, weakening their place at the top. On the other hand, they’ve got a chance to add a new one over Philly. Finally, the Buffalo@New England game will shorten some beatpath loops, so we’ll see some arrows show up, including the probable reappearance of New England’s win over Atlanta.

The main thread of DEN/IND => JAC => PIT => CIN is not threatened. However, if PHI beats DEN and SD beats KC, there’s a possibility of seeing Philly emerge with the longest beatpath of anyone, even without having a beatpath over Denver or Indy… why? Well, it’s a brainteaser – see if you can figure it out. Don’t consider any of the other games.

It definitely works out, I have the graph that proves it. I’m not sure if any other matches this week would cancel it out (probably not), but I know it happens if you consider only the DEN/PHI and SD/KC games. Also if you add in NE beating BUF.

Yep, both those loops are still there, but if a team has multiple separate beatpaths to a team, the loops don’t obliterate all of them. For instance, look at the above graph. If WAS beats DEN to split the series, DEN wouldn’t be able to reach CHI through WAS anymore, but DEN would still have a beatpath to CHI through JAC.

Dallas still advantages from those beatloops in this scenario by avoiding a beatpath loss to Oakland.